MARGAO: Accusing the Congress of trying to re-brand itself by using social activists, Town and Country Planning (TCP) Minister Vijai Sardesai has dared the party’s leaders to move a resolution in the Goa Legislative Assembly to disband the TCP department or even the government and run the state through the gram sabhas.
Apparently seeking to blame the Congress for being behind the ongoing agitation over the PDAs, the TCP Minister said the Congress leaders should either join the social activists or the activists in turn take over the Congress party and get the TCP and the government disbanded. “The issue in Goa is that the Congress is trying re-brand itself by using the social activists. The real activism within the Congress is almost extinct and they are re-branding itself with the help of these activists by shouting, tying to say there is no government in the state. These things, I am sure, people of Goa can see through,” he said.
The TCP Minister said it is difficult to fathom what is being opposed in the state. “They have put so many demands. If you give them one demand, they come out with more demands, including the disbanding of the TCP, which is beyond the scope of the TCP department,” he said.
He said the Congress should move a resolution in the House to disband the TCP department and the government as a whole or admit that they are out to play a game by which they want to come to power through the backdoor.
When the media questioned him when the TCP Board will meet to formalize the decision to withdraw the villages from the Greater Panaji PDA, Sardesai shot hack, “Let those opposing the PDAs first have their meetings and the Board will meet to take a decision”.
He said the government has recently taken a major decision of saving the livelihood of so many Goan families dependent on the business of bars on the basis of urban outlook of these villages. “The CAC has took a decision by giving large number of bars the relaxation based on the urban outlook area criteria in the PDA areas,” he added.
